The Yreka Miners boys varsity basketball team had little trouble Monday night against the Lost River Raiders, while the Lady Miners lost by a single point.

The boys squad won 63-41 and the girls team lost 54-53 to the Raiders of Merrill, Ore. Both games were played at home.

Boys game

The game started off slowly with Yreka and Lost River both taking a bit to get going with the score 12-6 after a quarter of play. By the end of the half the Miners were well on their way to a victory with a 32-13 advantage. While Yreka struggled a bit in spurts in the second half, they still came away with the 21-point victory.

"We'll take the win," head coach Christian Birch said. While pleased to earn the victory he felt that the team was not as sharp as they could have been and overall, "were flat," despite winning by more than 20. He said that a factor was that the squad played three close, emotional games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Yreka Miners Invitational. The Miners lost its first two games of the tournament before pulling off a dramatic 50-48 win against Del Norte thanks to two made free throws with less than a second remaining in the game.

David Sellens led Miner scorers with 14 points. He also had six rebounds and a block.

Tyler Johnson finished with 13 points, five rebounds, five blocks and four assists. Kaden Culp finished with 12 points and Tyler Currie had 10 points. Quaid Blanchard had four assits, six rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two points. The Miners improved to 2-2 for the season.

Girls game

The Lady Miners struggled with consistency to start the contest as the team could not seem to find a flow. The Miners had problems with turnovers, which head coach Ken Dysert estimated were more than 20 for the game.

Yreka trailed 10-14 after one quarter. In the second quarter the game was tied at 21-21 before the Raiders made a mini run and had a 32-28 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, Lost River jumped out to a 41-32 advantage and led 47-41 after three. Yreka came back in the fourth and cut the lead to 47-45. But, the Raiders got the lead back to nine again at 54-45 with 3:20 remaining. The Miners began to cut away at the lead yet again. With six seconds left the Miners scored and trailed 54-53 but did not foul as time expired.

Dakota Cash led Yreka with 14 points while Justine Cota had 12 points and Katie Brummett finished with 10 points

Dysert said that besides the turnovers he felt the defense is not where they it need to be. "We need to play better defense," he said. "We made too many mistakes." Dysert believes that with more practice this should hopefully improve. The Miners are currently 1-3 for the season.

Page 2 of 2 - Next up for both Yreka teams is the three-day Mount Shasta Holiday Basketball Tournament, which begins on Thursday.

Tonight, the Yreka boys and girls freshman basketball teams both open the season at home against Dunsmuir. The Lady Miners game begins at 5:30 p.m., while the freshman boys game gets underway at 7 p.m.